December 30, 2009

It's been a beautiful, terrifying, brilliant, sad, wildly fun, deeply moving, artful year in retrospect. The past nine years was by far the best of my life and I have so much to be thankful for. However, the past week has been difficult. Right up to the 23rd of December things were

going ahead of schedule. The first amarylis bloomed! All gifts made

a little typewriter for Matt

and wrapped, gingerbread house decked out

thank you Chloe and Mary

cookies made and packaged and delivered, cards written and sent, decorations up

the sweet angel Chloe made at age 4

and sparkly,

Chloe and Nicole fashioned a mum wigged friendly snowperson!

snowman made, time well spent with family and friends, even some naps ... and then -- my mom got really sick - hospital sick. So we packed up a little Christmas and spent it in the hospital. Lots of tests later and loads of worry, she came home on Saturday. Then I fell apart and got sick. Then daughter Chloe. So now, we are hoping for a healthy 2010, the fabulous new decade filled with everything wonderful for you and yours and ours.

My word for the New Year is - promise - as in: there is so much promise all around us waiting to bloom. Just let it happen!

December 22, 2009

a little world i made for a special friend with daughter grace today - so much fun - idea from design*sponge DIY coloumn

Oh the year winds down and the winds blow cold. The snow blankets the ground with a frosty crunch. Time marches on through the final days of 2009. It's been the best decade of my life. Thank you all for being a part of the last half here at my little blog! Wishing you the kindest and love filled last days with those who mean most to you. Taking a little blog break until the New Year breaks through! Be back with some new art, some new interviews and much fun.

Does it seem that so often the days swiftly fly by and we don't get to savor their full enjoyment - but this time of year more so? I try and "drag my feet to slow the circles down" in December. Try and not only check things off my list, but actually stop and listen to the snow fall, or cuddle a little longer with the loved ones. And try and keep everyone healthy through the hustle and bustle... only to come down with a quick flash of the flu at week's end! Feeling fine now - and back on track. It's a wonderful life!

December 15, 2009

This past weekend we took a page from Amanda Woodward's book and made our clients some granola. Oh the yumminess of it all. We started out with a little snow flying outside, mixing ingredients, sipping tea, stirring the liquid gold, popping the cranberries and nuts in the pan -- and then it really started to sleet. Messy horrible ice pellets. I took one peek outside and told MJ I had to buzz home. I don't mind snow driving but the ice storms? You can have them. So with granola in the oven, I said my farewells to Mary Jo and left it in her hands. It came out splendidly - save for one pan, and well, after the gocco session on the bags, we tied them up with ribbons and tags and have been delivering the said joy packages of granola-y goodness to all. Shipping some of course too! What have you been baking these days?

photo by Sue of MouseThis year's ornament swap was again fun to make for and to give. It's always great to know that the recipient of my work actually likes the ornament! It's a huge bonus to find a beautiful blog attached to the thank you note. Mouse is such a place. Go visit her blog and drink in the beauty of her stitchery and be sad as I am that you missed her sale in her shop! Thank you Sue for your kind words! A little later I will show you what Mary-Jo and I were up to during the sleeting snowstorm this Sunday.

December 14, 2009

Hello Monday! Last night Ashley G. twittered this link and I almost fell off my chair! So pretty is this birch bow, natural wood and curves all at the same time. Truly the wrapping is better than when it IS the present! Find it here at Christine Tillman's etsy shop. She is quite an artist too - her site is wonderful and diverse. Go have a gander right here.

I promise I will get back to art - but for me, I think this is just amazingly well put together designed beautifully and almost perfect with the little orange flower she made from her own drawing.ok, parental gush time is over... but isn't it something?She gave it to her sister for her birthday yesterday and drew a gasp when opened!

My baby turns 21 today! How can that be? Heading over to visit her with a Queen of Sheba cake (per Julia) and we will have a girl's lunch. Time flies when you are happy and living life with children. Her wings have sprouted and she's flown the coop (mostly), heading to France in a month to study abroad. We couldn't be more proud of her accomplishments and how she turned out. Pretty. darn. sweet. Happy day punkie!

December 07, 2009

It's a little late in the day to post, but I have been working nonstop since early this morning on the shop and gallery proper but I had to get to my thank yous before the day was out! I was so pleased to be asked again this year for my holiday wishlist from Grace at design*sponge. The post went up today right here and it is filled to the brim with so many wonderful ideas for holiday giving and getting. Thanks to Grace for inviting me along.. So much fun!

Happy Monday! I am so pleased that the sun is shining today... we had a small but sincere group who braved the horrible weather Saturday night to visit the "Wandering the Treeline" and IPS2. It was really messy out, but we still managed to enjoy the art and some wine! I wanted to kick off today with this incredible piece included in the show called Bird Swings, by Megan Bogonovich. There is so much to look at it is hard to figure out where to start. So take your time, click through and enlarge it at flickr, and check out the back view too. It's a stunner.All of the work is online - save for the pieces which are going back in today after a massive hack to our system. No worries, nothing is lost and it's all being put back in. Is the sun shining over in your neighborhood?

December 04, 2009

Just a little peek at these beautiful birds by Megan Bogonovich and Linda Plaisted's paintings. It's been one exhausting day -- but tomorrow it's all fresh warm cookies and hot cider for our holiday opening of "Wandering the Treeline" and IPS2! Click through here to see the whole peek and tomorrow it will be all online for sale! We have had some trouble with IE and Windows (!!!) so we are a little late in getting things sorted into the shop. Bear with us, it's worth the wait! Oh yeah - and we are gifting everyone a 10% discount on everything in the gallery just to say thanks for your undying love and support this year. Mention holidays to us or in the checkout of your cart!

December 02, 2009

There is so much new art in house it's overwhelming! It is wonderful though to show you a peek of the new works in the shop by Amber Lavalley. The rest are in the shop, scoot over and have a peek. I am in serious love with this one above ...

Megan came by yesterday with the first installment of her new sculptures. It's over the top again - amazingly detailed and yes, believe it or not, she has outdone herself again. It was a full moon drama drop off, but all in all our lovely afternoon was spent chatting and eating and photographing some of the most incredible scultpures I have seen from her yet! All will be in the shop and available for purchase on Saturday! Part three of this sneak peek? Tomorrow! IPS 2 -- back by popular demand!

Linda Plaisted from her notable studio: Many Muses, sent a body of work she named Treeline over to us last week for her upcoming show here at artstream. I have been bursting at the seams waiting to show you a peek this week! The walnut ink paintings with layers and layers of glaze atop make for the most beautiful "walk in a winter woods". The entire set are on canvas, affordable and breathtaking works of art. See the whole set over at flickr and they will be available for purchase in our shop on Saturday!

November 30, 2009

But there is still time -- today is the last day of our 10% off + free shipping sale, so pop by and scoop up some pretty amazing work for you or yours from Mike Lewis, Melanie Ford Wilson and Amanda Woodward! Oh yes, bonus - still available: 50$ prints from Alexandra Morrow! Just use the phrase "poppytalk" in the checkout.

from the Abigail*Ryan housewares - helicopter in ink abigail*ryan photoOver at Facebook I have been watching and waiting for Abigail and Ryan to release their new housewares lineup! Well, today is the day... These two have cooked up some real beauty in the housewares department! Their new pillows and really gorgeous tea towels caught my attention this morning - check the whole line up here at their big cartel shop. I wouldn't mind in the least finding a few of these delightful towels in my stocking this year!

Back from a wonderful long weekend celebrating my favorite holiday of them all - Thanksgiving! I hope you weekends were special in someway to you too. It's Monday and the last day of the month (where did it go?) and we are winding up for a new show our 50th!Linda Plaisted and Megan Bogonovich -- along with the IPS 2! Loads of great art work to enrich your life and to gift the same wonderful feeling to others!Previews coming today at our flickr!

November 25, 2009

Today is official get ready day for Thanksgiving in our house. I cook all the possible side dishes that I can today and bake bread so the turkey can have full reign in the oven tomorrow. It works and I was so pleased to find that some of the NY Times recipes I scooped from Jenn Judd Mcgee's twitter are simple and divine. Old stand-by dishes will be sitting next to our new found friends on the table of plenty and a sprinkling of snow will add to our ambiance it seems too tomorrow! Family and friends will be joining us and I for one am so very thankful for so very much this year.

artstream will be open as ususal on Friday and Saturday with some special new items both online in the shop and live in the gallery - all at 10% off until the month's end! Drop by and until then, happy Thanksgiving!

November 23, 2009

Here is a peek at one of Megan's new sculptures for our next exhibit! It's entitled Picnic. Very excited to show the other new works including a Yellow Brick Road... The work is based around little worlds. Places to go, people to see, thoughts to think.

Happy Monday all! Hope that your weekend was a brilliant as mine. So much to do at this time of year, with family, friends and cooking. I hope to share a little bit of all of it with you this week leading up to my favorite holiday of them all, Thanksgiving. This morning I already have prepared the cranberries - I really love the way they look in the pot, the hand and the bog, their alizarin red just sparkles! Tomorrow will pick up the Turkey for brining, and daughter Grace from college, so baking will have to wait until Wednesday. We are having 12 guests for the holiday so it should be a lot of fun this year - and the weather calls for snow! It doesn't get better than this in New Hampshire. Of course I will have to come back and read this post mid March when I am tearing my hair out with the copious amounts of snow we will have then.

A new show is coming up next week in our gallery so stay tuned to see some peeks of it. It's going to be an amazing double header! IPS 2 and Wandering the Treeline. OoooOOoooh.

November 20, 2009

This morning the color of the sky was so unique. It felt everything like a November morning. Now? It is sunny and springlike with rain and rainbows (missed that beautiful shot) and April like. Who knew global warming would be like this?

November 18, 2009

Here is Lesa in action, working on a new rug of her own design. Lesa is an artist who has formally trained in painting and printmaking, has created sculptures with her wool hooking and now chooses wool rug hooking as her medium. Pop over to the shop to view some of her latest works!

November 17, 2009

Last night's frost gave me a chance to take a closer look at the few remaining leaves mulching around the garden beds. One (of a few...) stray ones landed on the recycled boards on the foot paths between our beds. The frost has a nice way of outlining all the patterns on the leaves and this one caught my eye. Working hard on the new shows soon to appear at artstream. Beautiful breathtaking work from Megan Bogonovich and Linda Plaisted plus the bonus of IPS 2. Stay tuned!

November 16, 2009

Keeping with the nonart posts today -- hope you don't mind! I had to steal a little photo of the castoff watering can with the dried on the plant silverfloss. It just got me in the mood for November. And that is saying a whole lot. I am not a fan of November. But this year I am. The warm days and very little grey has pushed all my outdoor buttons into high gear. It's so pretty. It's so warm. It's so September just in time for Thanksgiving. Which really really really is my favorite holiday of them all. What did you find outside today?

Happy Monday! What a wonderful weekend we had this past three days. We slipped off on Friday afternoon to visit daughter Grace at college to attend a parent meeting about her next semester abroad in Rennes, France! She is very excited as this has been a dream of hers since high school. As she is majoring in both French and English, this semester will be dedicated just to her French major - something which she has dreamed of doing since she was 14. So despite our rainy Saturday we enjoyed the other corner of our pretty state! Upon coming home, I started thinking about using up our last bushel of apples. As a family we tend to consume a lot of applesauce or "apfelmus" (as Rainer calls it)- so I got right to work. I have decided to add a little photo recipe part to this blog and my flickr account, so you can explore some of our culinary adventures with us. Later tonight I will be canning or freezing the sauce and will supply directions on the flickr set for that. I hope you will enjoy the applesauce and try making it as it's so very easy!

November 13, 2009

stone house uganda Alexandra Morrowevening falls rita vindedzislondon cafe angela gwinnerPeople and places are our Friday picks of the Theme week. There are so many beautiful places and people to choose from it's the hardest choice of the week. Alexandra Morrow's Ugandan Stone house is so beautiful. Rita's evening skyline is soft yet urban and Angela Gwinner has a way with the black and white photograph which can melt your heart. They are full of the take you away feelings which good art can do.

November 12, 2009

oh my! this lovely vintage bird of paradise pillow from enhabiten is over the top for me with flower goodness. in a good way. subtle and lovely, made in nh (extra bonus points!) and has some tassels which give the edges a perfect yummy finish. I just love it! Go ahead and stroll through some more of her vintage beauty at the etsy shop right here and see her home at design sponge! tomorrow's theme? surprise! wait and see....

November 11, 2009

Katie Runnels photo Winter bird's nest assemblageI love Katie Runnels work with or without birds. But this bird nest has me swooning! psst:Christmas is coming... See more of her lovely works at her etsy and website. Sigh!